The present invention is directed to a conveyor belt cleaner scraper blade for scraping adherent material from a conveyor belt, and in particular to a conveyor belt cleaner scraper blade including one or more sensors for monitoring the operating conditions of the scraper blade and is also directed to its method of manufacture.
Some conveyor mechanisms utilize a moving conveyor belt to transport sand, gravel, coal and other bulk materials, from one location to another. As the bulk material is discharged from the conveyor belt, a portion of the material often remains adhered to the belt. Conveyor belt cleaners, including one or more scraper blades, are used to scrape the adherent material from the belt and thereby clean the belt. A primary conveyor belt cleaner may be placed in scraping engagement with the conveyor belt at the head pulley of the conveyor and a secondary conveyor belt cleaner may be placed in scraping engagement with and below the return run of the conveyor belt a short distance behind the primary conveyor belt cleaner. The scraper blades of a conveyor belt cleaner are removably attached to a rotatable or linearly adjustable cross shaft that extends transversely across the width of the conveyor belt. A tensioning device is attached to one or both ends of the cross shaft. The tensioning device applies a rotational or linear biasing force to the cross shaft which in turn moves the scraper blades into scraping engagement with the conveyor belt with a desired amount of force. During operation, the scraping edge of each scraper blade wears due to its scraping engagement with the rotating conveyor belt. The tensioner rotates or linearly adjusts the cross shaft and the scraper blades to maintain the scraper blades in biased scraping engagement with the conveyor belt.
In order to obtain optimum performance from the scraper blades of a conveyor belt cleaner, it is preferable that the scraper blades be biased into scraping engagement with the conveyor belt with a predetermined amount of force. If the scraper blades are biased against the conveyor belt with an excessive amount of force, this will result in excessive wear to the scraper blades, potential damage to the conveyor belt, and may cause the tip of the scraper blade to develop an excessively high temperature due to the friction generated between the scraper blade and the rotating conveyor belt. If the scraper blades are biased against the conveyor belt with too small of a force, the scraper blades may not effectively clean the conveyor belt. In addition, the scraping tip of the scraper blades may vibrate or chatter against the conveyor belt depending upon the amount of force with which the scraper blades are biased into engagement with the conveyor belt, thereby potentially damaging the scraper blades and/or the belt, and decreasing cleaning efficiency. It is therefore useful to monitor the conditions and parameters of a scraper blade during operation, such as the scraping tip temperature, the rate of wear of the scraper blade, and the magnitude of the force with which the scraper blade is biased into scraping engagement with the conveyor belt, to optimize the performance of the scraper blade. All of these parameters are subject to change depending on a number of factors including conveyor belt speed and the type of material being conveyed.
A conveyor belt cleaner scraper blade for cleaning the surface of a conveyor belt. The scraper blade includes a body having a base member adapted to be attached to the cross shaft of a conveyor belt cleaner and a scraping member that extends outwardly from the base member to a scraping tip which is adapted to engage the conveyor belt. The body of the scraper blade includes one or more electrical sensors such as temperature sensors, strain detection sensors and/or wear sensors. Each temperature sensor provides an indication of the temperature of the scraper blade at the location of the temperature sensor. The strain detection sensors provide an indication of the magnitude of the strain the scraper blade is subjected to during scraping engagement with the conveyor belt. The wear rate sensors provide an indication of the location of the scraping tip with respect to the base member as the scraper blade wears away due to its scraping engagement with the rotating conveyor belt and as the scraping tip moves closer to the base member. If other conditions need to be monitored other types of sensors may also be utilized. Ultimately, the information which is sensed by the sensors may be transmitted to a microprocessor that may vary the operating conditions of the conveyor belt, including the speed of the belt, the tension applied by a conveyor belt cleaner tensioner, or possibly sounding an alarm or other signal when the sensed information deviates from preset ranges.
The scraper blade is made by coupling the sensors to a first positioning member such as a mesh sheet including one or more mounting holes. The mesh sheet and the sensors are positioned with an insert mold by inserting portions of the insert mold through the mounting holes of the mesh sheet. Molten elastomeric material is poured into the insert mold to form an insert member having the sensors embedded therein. The insert member comprises a second positioning member for properly positioning the sensors within the body of the scraper blade. The insert member is inserted into a scraper blade body mold in a desired location. Molten elestomeric material is then poured into the body mold to form the body of the scraper blade with the insert member and electrical sensors molded and embedded within the body.